Birding With Batt 10-20-26 · KMSU Birding With Batt · Radar

Otters, Birds, and a Lost Parakeet1:29 – 5:38

1:29

Speaking of farmers, I heard from one, Leon Schoenrock.

1:32

Leon is from New Richland.

1:34

And he said, last Sunday, Randy Peterson called and said that he had just gone driving down past somebody's place and saw an animal dead on the road.

1:44

And he was pretty sure it was an otter.

1:47

I had some doubts, Leon said, because I didn't know we had otters around here.

1:52

But I drove over.

1:53

It was about a mile from my place.

1:55

And it was, in fact, an otter.

1:58

So I picked the otter up and put him in my pickup for some photos.

2:02

Showed him to a bunch of kids in town near my daughter's house.

2:06

I called the conservation officer to see what to do with him, and he said they are reclaiming this area after being extirpated long ago.

2:16

He said there are quite a few of them in Freeborn County now.

2:20

And Leon asked, have I seen any otters around here? He said, I'm holding out hope for a Bigfoot appearance.

2:29

Well, you know, on the Bigfoot, we'll have to put him in touch.

2:32

We'll put Leon in touch with Shelly.

2:35

If anybody can find a Bigfoot, it'd be Shelly.

2:37

She'll find one.

2:40

An interesting thing, Leon, never look for a Bigfoot at a bowling alley.

2:44

Researchers say that shoe sizes are a big deterrent for them to be in the bowling alley.

2:50

I have seen otters around here, the Shell Rock River down around Glenville.

2:55

I have a neighbor who has one.

2:57

Jerry Victoria is seeing them pretty regularly, catching fish in one of the little, we call them dredge ditches, but they're, you know, for the otters and for the fish, they're little rivers, streams.

3:10

So, yeah, there are some around, and that's really cool.

3:12

It's sad it was a deceased otter, but still it's pretty cool to see one and to hear that they are making inroads and coming back to this area.

3:23

So maybe we all can see them.